Critical Success Factors for Integrated Library System Implementation in Academic Libraries: A Qualitative Study

Abstract

Integrated library system (ILS) supports the entire business operations of an academic library from acquiring and processing library resources to making them available to user communities and preserving them for future use. As libraries’ needs evolve, there is a pressing demand for libraries to migrate from one generation of ILS to the next. This complex migration process is often the single largest investment in both budget and personnel involvement, but its success is by no means guaranteed. We draw upon enterprise resource planning (ERP) and critical success factors (CSFs) literature to identify the most salient CSFs for ILS migration success through a qualitative study with four cases. We identified that top management involvement, vendor support, user involvement, selection process, project team competence, project management and tracking, interdepartmental communication, data analysis and conversion, user education and training, and user emotion management are the CSFs that determine a migration project success.  Keywords: Integrated library systems, information systems, library automation, critical success factors, and academic libraries.